he has to be favourite for next year surely. RBR are gonna struggle to do four in a row, Mclaren have no drivers and Mercedes will need a year to regroup. It's vettel or Alonso next year so you'd think with such a reliable car Ferrari can take a few risks.

Lauda's 1984 title came seven years after his last WDC. But that doesn't matter really. Alonso was very young when he won his first two titles and he is still going to be around for some time. He certainly is one of the best drivers on the grid and if the car is good and reliable he can win the title as well.

Also, since his last title, he has been within a few points of the champion three times out of six (2007, 2010 and 2012). In 2008 and 2009 the car was average and in 2011 RBR was unbeatable. So that proves it.

The gap is meaningless. It has absolutely no relevance to if he will win again or not (as the lack of a win is not down to lack of his own talent) It isn't like he's been absolutely nowhere in the standings for 6 years either.

+1.I hope he never wins again as long as he stays at Ferrari! I will never forget how they treated Kimi to hand Fernando "the better development driver" Alonso that seat. Things got even worse with how they treated Felipe to make that spanish Brat look like Gold or God!

he has to be favourite for next year surely. RBR are gonna struggle to do four in a row, Mclaren have no drivers and Mercedes will need a year to regroup. It's vettel or Alonso next year so you'd think with such a reliable car Ferrari can take a few risks.

Alonso has won or been close to winning the championship with 3 different teams, drivers and the people that matter rank that very highly and its the reason Hamilton is moving away from a race winning car into a midfielder.

Painful stat: if Alonso scored 13 more points in three seasons he would have been a five-time world champion with three different constructors.

Painful, but to be realistic nobody has won 5 championship fights out of 5. Alonso has won 2 and has lost 3, it can be considered normal.Even Schumacher, the most succesful driver, lost 3 championships in the last race and another one because of an injury.

+1.I hope he never wins again as long as he stays at Ferrari! I will never forget how they treated Kimi to hand Fernando "the better development driver" Alonso that seat. Things got even worse with how they treated Felipe to make that spanish Brat look like Gold or God!

I hope he never wins a title again. Massa would really deserve it more...

Much worse shape? Remember the 2009 season. The previous seasons don't count, because the regulations changed a lot in 2009.

I don't think the original point is about the car being bad - which was anyway a one off as you say because of the rule changes. I think a 17 season poor run indicates a fundamentally poor race team/processes, rather than a one-off design issue with the race car.

I don't think the original point is about the car being bad - which was anyway a one off as you say because of the rule changes. I think a 17 season poor run indicates a fundamentally poor team, rather than a one-off design issue with the race car.

Ok, fair enough. But the team was also in bad shape, I remember lots of strategic mistakes in 2008 and 2009. Although probably not as bad as when Schumacher joined as you say.